Royal Dutch Shell said it spilled nearly 14,000 tons of oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta in 2009 and blamed thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
Links: Oil, Environment, Netherlands, Nigeria

2010 May 4

Alfredo Martinez de Hoz (84), the powerful economy minister who ran Argentina's finances during most of the dictatorship (1976-1983), was arrested and his bank accounts were frozen. The arrest followed a Supreme Court ruling last week deeming unconstitutional a 1990 presidential pardon granted to Martinez de Hoz and former dictator Jorge Videla.
Links: Argentina

2010 May 4

Ohio voters passed ballot proposal Issue 1. It allowed the state to issue $700 million of bonds to finance research and development for the so-called “Third Frontier” program, which was launched in 2002
Links: USA, Ohio

2010 May 4

In Mexico two Colombians were arrested at Mexico City's international airport as they allegedly prepared to board a flight to Panama trying to smuggle out more than $350,000 in cash in various currencies.
Links: Colombia, Mexico

The US Interior Dept. declared wolves fully recovered in most of the Northern Rockies, opening the door for hunts in the Fall.
Links: USA, Animal

2011 May 4

A San Ramon, Ca., police officer, Louis Lombardi (38), was arrested after he was linked to an ongoing probe into the theft of confiscated drugs. On Jan 26, 2012, Lombardi pleaded guilty to charges that he sold drugs with his commanding officer, stole jewelry and cash from crime scenes and possessed stolen guns.
Links: USA, SF Bay Area

2011 May 4

In Oklahoma Sandlin Matthews Smith was shot and killed after he pulled a gun on federal agents trying to arrest him. Smith faced federal charges in connection with the bombing of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida last May.
Links: USA, Oklahoma

2011 May 4

In Texas Jacob Gonzalez (21) fatally shot three women riding with him in a car in Corpus Christi. Gonzalez fled on foot after his vehicle smashed into a pole and was tackled by a bystander.
Links: USA, Murder, Texas

Intel unveiled its new Ivy Bridge processor made with a 3-D manufacturing technique that increases chip performance as much as 37% while using less power.
Links: USA, Technology, Computer

2011 May 4

The Chinese Embassy in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
Links: China, Norway, Fish

2011 May 4

In Costa Rica Ohio teenager Caity Jones died in the Pacific Ocean when she was pulled by an undertow current. Two other students, on a school mission trip, were swept out with her. The body of James Smith was recovered the next day. The body of Kai Lamar was recovered on May 6.
Links: Costa Rica, Ohio, Tragedy

2011 May 4

A Gervais beaked whale washed up on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. A necropsy of the whale found more than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of twisted plastic inside its stomach.
Links: Costa Rica, Environment, Whales

The European Union said six Zimbabwean state-media journalists are on a sanctions list because they incite hatred in their reporting. The journalists who fiercely support President Robert Mugabe are among some 200 individuals linked to Mugabe's party who face banking and travel bans from the EU, the US and Britain.
Links: EU, Zimbabwe, Journalism

2011 May 4

New computer modeling showed that Japan's many language variants descended from a common ancestor some 2,182 years ago -- coinciding with the major wave of migration from the Korean Peninsula.
Links: Japan, South Korea, Language

2011 May 4

In Libya Gadhafi's forces shelled Zintan a rebel town and a key supply route, part of a push to crush stubborn resistance in the mountains of western Libya.
Links: Libya

2011 May 4

In western Nepal a bus veered off a mountain road, killing at least 16 people and injuring 20 others in the country's second serious bus accident in two days.
Links: Nepal, Bus Crash

2011 May 4

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas proclaimed a landmark, Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact signed in Cairo aimed at ending their bitter four-year rift. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that his Islamist movement would work to achieve the "Palestinian national goal" of a sovereign state on the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Gaza's Hamas rulers executed a man convicted of collaborating with Israel. His execution was the 11th in Gaza since Hamas violently wrested control of the territory in June 2007.
Links: Egypt, Israel, Palestine

TimelinesA text-based site.

2011 May 4

South Korean police said the body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry in Mungyong.
Links: South Korea, Religion

2011 May 4

A Turkish police officer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the northern city of Kastamonu, where PM Tayyip Erdogan had been speaking earlier in the day.
Links: Turkey

2011 May 4

In Uganda some 300 lawyers gathered in Kampala to protest the arrest of the country's top opposition leader and a crackdown on demonstrations.
Links: Uganda, Mad Crowd

2011 May 4

Ukrainian prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation against the former head of the Kiev Zoo, where hundreds of animals have died or gone mysteriously missing in recent years. Svitlana Berzina was suspected of embezzling some $47,000 (euro32,000) from the zoo by commissioning projects that weren't fully carried out, if at all. Berzina was fired last year after nearly one-half of the zoo's animals either died or disappeared.
Links: Ukraine, Animal

2011 May 4

The Vatican condemned former Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and said it planned to take disciplinary action against him.
Links: Canada, Vatican, Clergy Sex

In Yemen an explosion ripped through a military vehicle in Zinjibar killing 5 soldiers. 4 other civilians died in an ensuing firefight.
Links: Yemen

2011 May 4

Actress Mary Murphy (80) died of heart disease in Beverly Hills. She was discovered in a coffee shop and landed a role as the small-town wholesome girl opposite Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." Murphy had several roles in 1950s films, including "The Desperate Hours," "Beachhead," "A Man Alone," "Sitting Bull" and "The Mad Magician."
Links: USA, Film Star

2011 May 4

Vietnam’s central bank raised a key interest rate to 14% presented a package of commitments, titled Resolution II, to tighten money and credit. Consumer prices had risen 17.5% in the year to April.
Links: Vietnam, Banking

The United States said that China had indicated it would let blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family leave the country soon, raising hopes of a resolution to a damaging diplomatic crisis.
Links: USA, China

Disgraced former press baron Conrad Black (67) was released from a Florida prison after ending his sentence and flown to his home in Canada, which has granted him a temporary resident permit despite his criminal record.
Links: Canada, USA, Florida, Journalism

2012 May 4

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill banning abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving money through the state, her office said in a statement.
Links: Medical, Arizona

2012 May 4

A federal jury in Nashville split its verdict against 9 people accused of operating a sex trafficking ring run mostly by Somali refugee gang members. 3 men were convicted of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. 6 men were acquitted.
Links: USA, Tennessee, Somalia, Sex, Kids

2012 May 4

Adam Yauch (47), the gravelly voiced rapper, aka MCA), who helped make the Beastie Boys one of the seminal groups in hip-hop, died of cancer.
Links: USA, Pop&Rock

2012 May 4

In southern Afghanistan two NATO coalition service members were killed in an insurgent attack. A remote-controlled roadside bomb killed five border police in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan.
Links: Afghan

Australian Police hunted for a gang of Sydney street robbers who threw feces at their victims to distract them before grabbing their money.
Links: Australia, Robbery

2012 May 4

British PM David Cameron's Conservative Party took an electoral bruising, suffering widespread losses in local elections as voters punished the leader for biting austerity measures and a stalled economy. Deputy PM Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats suffered similar woes. In London Cameron's Conservative Party colleague Boris Johnson swept to a second four-year term as the British capital's mayor.
Links: Britain

2012 May 4

Canada minted its final one-cent coin and urged people to donate the little copper-covered coins to charity rather than let them go to waste.
Links: Canada, Money

2012 May 4

In Egypt thousands rallied against the country's ruling military council, two days after a flare-up of street violence left at least nine dead and fueled a wave of Islamist-led opposition to the generals ahead of presidential elections. Military prosecutors detained some 320 Egyptian protesters following clashes outside the country's Defense Ministry. Two people were reported killed and over 300 people injured.
Links: Egypt, Mad Crowd

2012 May 4

In India a Reliance company executive said the government has asked the energy giant to pay a $1.25 billion penalty for a fall in gas production from its main oil fields.
Links: India, Gas

TimelinesA text-based site.

2012 May 4

Iranians lined up at polling stations for a second round of parliamentary elections. Conservative opponents of Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad already won an outright majority of seats of the new parliament in the first round of elections held in March. Of 65 seats up for grabs Ahmadinejad's opponents won 41 while the president's supporters got only 13.
Links: Iran

2012 May 4

Israel freed from jail Haggai Amir, the brother and key accomplice of the man who assassinated Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, after more that 16 years in jail.
Links: Israel

2012 May 4

In Ivory Coast about 50 inmates staged a jailbreak from the main prison on the fringes of Abidjan. About 20 were apprehended.
Links: Ivory Coast

2012 May 4

Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said a quashed election reform rally was being used to topple the government ahead of polls expected in June.
Links: Malaysia

2012 May 4

In Timbuktu, Mali, the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar (d.1458), classified as a World Heritage site, was attacked by an Islamist group.
Links: Mali

A Myanmar state-run newspaper said recent battles between government troops and Kachin ethnic rebels had killed 31 people. The New Light of Myanmar reported 11 clashes in the last week of April, including what it said was an attack by rebels of the Kachin Independence Army on a government border guard base.
Links: Myanmar

2012 May 4

In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 2 warders and freed all inmates from a local jail in Kumshe town, Borno state. 23 Boko Haram suspects were arrested during an attack on a police station in Banki. In the eastern state of Taraba, gunmen disguised in military uniforms shot dead five residents near Babban Mutum town.
Links: Nigeria

2012 May 4

Shell announced a significant cut in its Nigerian oil production due to pipeline damage caused by theft, and warned that it might not meet contractual obligations as a result.
Links: Oil, Nigeria

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete sacked six ministers over graft allegations after a report by the auditor-general implicated numerous officials in cases of bribery and suspect procurements. Kikwete also transferred an additional eight ministers to new portfolios and appointed seven new ones.
Links: Tanzania, Corruption

2012 May 4

In Tunisia an official tally said 338 Tunisians were killed and 2,174 were injured during the popular uprising that led to the fall of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Links: Tunisia

2012 May 4

Ukraine's jailed and ailing ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko tentatively agreed to have her back condition treated at a local hospital under the supervision of a German doctor.
Links: Ukraine

2013 May 4

Twelve Senegalese employees of a South African demining company were kidnapped in Senegal's southern Casamance region. On May 29 the rebels released 3 women who were kidnapped with the group. The 9 remaining employees were freed on July 12 in Guinea-Bissau.
Links: Guinea-Bissau, Senegal

2013 May 4

In the SF Bay Area a stretch limo caught fire on the San Mateo Bridge. The driver and 4 women in a bridal party escaped, but 5 others, including the bride, died in the fire.
Links: USA, Tragedy, SF Bay Area

In southern Afghanistan 5 US troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province. 2 others died as a soldier with the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west.
Links: USA, Afghan

2013 May 4

In Afghanistan insurgents in Baghlan province killed a German special forces soldier and wounded another. This marked the first death in combat of a member of Germany's special forces in Afghanistan. Several insurgents are believed to have been killed in the fighting.
Links: Germany, Afghan

2013 May 4

In northern Belgium hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire.
Links: Belgium, Train Crash

Nigel Evans (55), a member of PM David Cameron's Conservative party, was detained over sexual attacks allegedly carried out at his home in Lancashire, northern England between July 2009 and March of this year. Evans had announced in 2010 that he was gay.
Links: Britain, Sex